I mainly read fantasy with a sprinkling of sci fi, but historical novels about interesting, (and mainly female, I'll admit) historical figures interest me, too. I unfortunately haven't had a lot of time to read for pleasure, but I speed read and try to read a new book at least once a week.

I just finished reading Poison Studyby Maria V. Snyder. I wasn't expecting too much from the book to begin with, but poison and poisoners have always interested me, and though the book didn't go into too much detail about the kinds of poisons used here, I did enjoy reading this. It takes place in a former kingdom Ixia, a monarchy overthrown by a man called Commander Ambrose. It' a pretty fascist society with trict laws called The Code of Behavior, complete with uniforms for all professions. (Jobs are assigned.) The main character, Yelena, is offerred a reprieve from the noose if she becomes the new food taster for the Commander, and it goes on from there. We have intruigue, magic, and even some romance here. It was a good light read.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend. I can say that it was a hilarious read if you disconnect yourself and not take it seriously. I didn't like the fact that the main character engulfed the plot and overshadowed the importance of the apostles and hanged Judas Iscariot after he betrayed Jesus, but the whole thing was somehow immensely funny, in a bluntly insulting, sarcastic way. It's clearly a parody work, so I can let a lot of Stu-ishness pass. This is a bit like American Pratchett without the fantasy. Profanity, sexual situations, and Biblical innacuracy. However, we see Jesus mastering Nirvana among Buddhist monks.

(Edited: Why did I orignally write religious figures? Strange.)

Last edited by Ivy-chan (10-21-2006 09:38:57 PM)

I'm presently reading The Falcon of Palermo, by Maria Bordihn. It's a historical novel about Frederick II, the Norman ruler of Sicily then Holy Roman Emperor than a whole bunch more because he just kicked ass like that. It's set in the middle ages, and the author's attention to culture and detail is absolutely fantastic. I like historical novels because they offer, when well done, a better glimpse of the time period than a dry history text, and this one's definitely pulled that off beautifully. The parts set in Sicily are especially great to me because the region was such a mishmash of cultures and so far removed from the rest of medieval Europe; Frederick learns the habit of bathing from the Saracens (Arabs) and so is considered effeminate in the German regions where bathing wasn't a big thing at the time. (Also, my roots are predominantly Sicilian, so take my interest with a slight grain of salt, but give me credit for attempting objectivity.)

The lead character, Frederick, well.... He had incredibly progressive views on religion and art for the time, and he's portrayed as equally openminded about sex, though this I'm not sure is documented so much as assumed from his upbringing. So far I'm having an absolute blast watching him kick up the religious and cultural dust that collected all over the middle ages.

Unfortunately I'm a hopelessly slow reader, partly because I'm out of practice, and partly because I've just never been good at speed reading. Really need to work on that.

Oh, and because it was such fun, the last book I read was At Home with the Marquis de Sade, by Francine du Plessix Gray. A biography about, well, a very kinky dude. I honestly rather liked the Marquis de Sade before (Quills is one of my favorite movies), but by the end of this biography I liked him a whole lot more. He's been demonized by history, and not without reason because he's quite a pervert and does pretty nasty things aside from writing all that smut, but about halfway into the book you just start forgiving him. He turns out a childish result of the hideous spoiling awarded to the French aristocracy at the time, plus, well hey. Naughty priests go back a long way. Also I found his ruthless food snobbing to be quite adorable.

(Hey, links to the amazon.com pages would be awesome, even if you don't buy on amazon they put a lot of info on their pages like page number, blanket price, publisher, etc., and a lot of books have a few pages you can sample read.)

Giovanna wrote:

Oh, and because it was such fun, the last book I read was At Home with the Marquis de Sade, by Francine du Plessix Gray. A biography about, well, a very kinky dude. I honestly rather liked the Marquis de Sade before (Quills is one of my favorite movies), but by the end of this biography I liked him a whole lot more. He's been demonized by history, and not without reason because he's quite a pervert and does pretty nasty things aside from writing all that smut, but about halfway into the book you just start forgiving him. He turns out a childish result of the hideous spoiling awarded to the French aristocracy at the time, plus, well hey. Naughty priests go back a long way. Also I found his ruthless food snobbing to be quite adorable.

...I loved Quills myself -- I think I am going to have to go and find this one myself.

Yesterday I just started reading The Firemaster's Mistress, which I will reserve judgment on in the meantime because I'm about three chapters in and haven't formed an opinion yet. I picked it up because it's a semi-historical novel set around the Gunpower Plot that was set up to kill a certain king od England, and since moving to England I have felt rather guilty about not knowing, say, the difference between Mary I and Mary, Queen of Scots (hey, it's EMBARASSING to go to Westminster and not have a fucking clue whose effigy you're looking at!). I ended up reading a lot of Philippa Gregory as I am no fan of proper history texts and am bright enough to take what I read with a grain of salt; I just want the general idea of what went on. This book here is published by Gregory's publishers and she said something nice about it herself, but I am not quite convinced I like it yet. I also bought Arthur and George at the same time, but I haven't started on that. It's set partly in Edinburgh. That's why I bought it. I am a whore for Edinburgh.

...speaking of which, I reread a bunch of Diana Gabaldon the other day, which is usually worth the read. Not a huge fan, but...it's Scotland. Scotland is my friend.

Other books I've read lately that I wouldn't mind hearing people's opinions on are The Historian and Labyrinth -- has anyone else read them? The former I can't decide if I like because of the ending, and the latter I would like to talk about with anyone who has read both Labyrinth itself and the ubiquitous The Da Vinci Code because I can't decidce which actually works better as a story and a piece of literature...and it bugs me.

And hey, I just remembered two months ago I bought a Doctor Who audio book I still haven't listened to. [scratches head] I never listen to audio books; I only bought this because it was David Tennant reading it. Hell, what is everyone else's opinion on audiobooks? I read anything from the dictionary to Eliot to Nora Roberts to FHM to manga to physics text books to fairytales, but I can not for the life of me LISTEN to an audiobook. Even though I loved having stories read to me as a kid. Goddammit, where's my iPod at?

Well, hoping that I'll be able to read Japanese text one day, my next favourite book that I would like to read is "Schell;Bullet"

It's another one of thsoe mecha-comic books that is Gundam-ish with politics and stuff. I dont know much because I dont know how to read Japanese xD

I'm reading Startled by his Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison right now. It's the seventh book in the Georgia Nicolson series, which is funny as hell (I'm too lazy to list the others because they all have really long names). After that, I'm going to read Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser. That book is pretty hefty, but I actually kinda like hefty books as long as they're interesting.

I am the biggest Anglophile Victorian nerd ever. It's really quite sad-- and I love anything that has to do with historical fantasy. A Great and Terrible Beauty, Sorcery and Cecilila, Neverwhere, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell-- good stuff. I also love A.S. Byatt (anybody read her fairytales? They're delightfully ghoulish and elegant), L.M. Montgomery, Jane Austen, Patricia C. Wrede. I'm reading The Crimson Petal and The White right now. I adore Virgina Woolf, Sarah Waters, Neil Gaiman. . . actually, if it's been written, I should be all over it. xD

Giovanna wrote:

Melusina wrote:

Neverwhere

Don't start on him or I may never shut up.

Everytime we squee about Neil, a angel gets its wings.

Er. Or something. But one really must love the man.

Clarice wrote:

And hey, I just remembered two months ago I bought a Doctor Who audio book I still haven't listened to. [scratches head] I never listen to audio books; I only bought this because it was David Tennant reading it. Hell, what is everyone else's opinion on audiobooks? I read anything from the dictionary to Eliot to Nora Roberts to FHM to manga to physics text books to fairytales, but I can not for the life of me LISTEN to an audiobook. Even though I loved having stories read to me as a kid. Goddammit, where's my iPod at?

Ohhh, David Tennant...  *wipes drool*  It breaks my heart that they won't let him keep his accent as the Doctor, but I get to see him in my TV box every week (as opposed to my computer box), so I'll suck it up.  Please let me know if they let him use his accent (read as: SPEAK NORMALLY) while reading the audiobooks.

And the only audiobook I've ever bought is America (The Audiobook).  I should probably pick up the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio plays one of these days...

In other news, I'm doing research for my Women in Japanese History research paper, due at the end of the semester--I'm writing about geisha from just before the Meiji Restoration to the present day.  I've had a thing for geisha since I don't know when (and no, it was not fueled by that crappy novel; you know the one).  My favorite book so far of all my source material is Bad Girls of Japan, which is a serious scholarly work that manages to be a fun read.

I also really like Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D series.  I can't stand the overuse of passive voice in the translation, but I've been wanting to read the novels since I found out they existed.  It's total crack, and I like seeing how Western horror has influenced Japanese ideas about what is scary.  I'm currently reading the fifth of who knows how many, The Stuff of Dreams.

Last edited by mercurynin (10-23-2006 07:57:26 PM)

Giovanna wrote:

I had NO idea these were translated! I just doublecame.

Is the translation very grating then? Are they good books? Tell me more!

Dark Horse Publishing licensed them, and the one I'm reading is the most recent translated novel.  The best part, I think, is Yoshitaka Amano's covers and illustrations.  The translations are okay, I guess.  I guess passive voice irks me because I'm studying journalism and writing in passive voice is a big no-no.  I wish I knew how Kikuchi originally wrote them so I could tell exactly how the translation compares.

Content-wise, they're not bad.  I find myself zoning out during combat scenes, though, but that might just be me.  Kikuchi LOVES making young women the protagonist-du-jour.  At the rate D is traveling, I'm going to insist on a map of the Frontier one of these days--man covers some serious ground.  It's also both fascinating and frustrating how Kikuchi inserts background into the stories, especially anything to do with the Capital and the scientific, technological and cultural advances the Nobility made while they were in their prime.

Just as a point of reference, novels one (self-titled) and three (Demon Deathchase) are the ones that the two movies are based on, (tiny spoiler) though Demon Deathchase has a significantly different ending from Bloodlust.(/tiny spoiler)

Right now, I'm in the process of reading The Waste Lands, by Stephen King. I guess I'm kind of late into the whole Dark Tower bandwagon, huh? In any case, it's a mighty awesome series, though the constant "foreshadowing" really annoys me. After a dozen cases of "that was the last time he saw her alive", it really starts to lose its effect.

The book I read before that one was Principia Discordia, by Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst. Hail Eris! Kallisti! All Hail Discordia!

The book I'm going to read next is Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett. Nac Mac Feegle wha hae! It's been a while since I've gotten a chance to chomp down on a Discworld novel, so I'm really looking forward to this. Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willnae be fooled again!

Favourite authors:
- Umberto Eco
- Terry Pratchett
- Neil Gaiman
- Hermann Hesse
- George R.R. Martin
- H.P. Lovecraft

I've been rereading Hannibal by Thomas Harris for possibly the umpteenth time, I love it soo, soo much. I'm thinking about picking upRed Dragon because I'd like to round out my collection. I also just got the new anniversary edition of Good Omens, so that was shiny happy fun. I had to get it, my paperback feel apart. Uhmmm...  I loooove, love, love Terry Pratchett's Small Gods. Marvy novel, that one. So far I've been really pleased by anything Kay Hooper writes. Basically, psychic FBI agents, although it's written from such a scientific point that you don't think it's far out there or anything. Uhm...also, Mary Roach's Stiff: The Lives of Cadavers is good, although nonfiction, which I'm not always about.

Totally not a book, per se, but is anyone reading Neil Gaiman's 1602? 'Cause I'm really digging that.

I'm currently reading Umberto Eco's Focault's Pendulum. It's great fun, making witty fun of conspiracy theorists and occultists.

My absolutely favourite writer is R.A. Wilson, the co-author of Illuminatus-trilogy and author of Schrödinger's Cat-trilogy, Historical Illuminatus Chronicles and Prometheus Rising among other things. A great satirist and commentator of contemporary values. And I have a feeling that he could teach even Akio a thing or two about manipulation and sex, if his books are anything to judge.

Now, I'm not a great fan of most conspiracy-theories, or books about them, as they tend to turn people's attention away from real issues, but Eco and Wilson know how to deal with them and damn well.

H.P. Lovecraft had brilliant ideas and I love his stories for them, but his actual writing style is sadly medicore. That's why he remained poor and only became famous after his death, unfortunately. When he is mentioned, Clark Ashton Smith should be mentioned, also, along with Robert W. Chambers. And getting into the era, Arthur Machen, Ambrose Bierce and Lord Dunsany are neccesary to be aquainted with, as well. Herman Hesse has also been mentioned, no surprise in an Utena forum.

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are obviously household names. Alan Moore should be with them, as well.

Hannibal, both the book and the movie, has to be one of my worst guilty pleasures.

I enjoyed Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, both books and movies, but I never managed to like Hannibal. It feels like disgrace of the character, giving Hannibal childhood traumas and he really doesn't feel like the same person, any more. Sorry, but I think that he's at his best while he's aiding detectives behind bars, instead of being on the loose.